Michele completed her PhD in 1972 on bacteriophage genetics at the University of Geneva. She then moved to the United States to undertake postdoctoral research, initially at the Public Health Research Institute of the City of New York and subsequently at the Harvard Medical School. While in Boston, she was active in Science for the People, an organization of scientists, educators and activists committed to the application of science for the benefit of humanity.
Dr. Fluck was recruited to Michigan State University to join what is now the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics as an Associate Professor in 1979. An internationally recognized researcher in virology, she was named a University Distinguished Professor in 1990. With funding from the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, and the Leukemia Society of America, her research focused on the polyoma virus, aiming to elucidate both its mechanism of replication and its role in causing cancer. She was an enthusiastic and dedicated instructor of virology for both graduate and undergraduate students. Michele was active not only as a faculty member with research and teaching responsibilities, but also as an advocate for women’s equality and rights. In addition to the formal guidance that she provided to undergraduate and graduate students in her own research program, she mentored many female students and junior faculty. She provided input on women’s issues on campus through her service on numerous Women’s Advisory Committees to Provosts and Deans.
Michele had many interests outside of her academic career, including jazz and classical music, orchids, and snow skiing. Accomplished on the harpsichord and piano, Michele hosted chamber music concerts at her home and performed in a number of local venues. She bequeathed her lovely instruments to the MSU College of Music. Gardening, her pet cats, entertaining, and books were additional avocations.
Michele was preceded in death by her sister, Liliane Fluck and parents, Henriette Alice Fluck (formerly Delaloye) and Wilhelm Rudolf Fluck. She is survived by a brother, Jean-Philibert Fluck of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and a large number of friends, colleagues, and students, whose lives she impacted. Michele was a wonderful person, deeply caring and committed to her students and friends, generously supportive and always authentic.
Donations in Michele’s memory may be made to the Allen Creek Preschool (Ann Arbor), The Women’s Center of Greater Lansing, or the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics through the MSU College of Natural Sciences.
A formal remembrance ceremony will be held at Red Cedar Friends Meeting House in Lansing on Sept. 29th.
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